Ivaylo Lyudmilov Chochev ( bg, Ивайло Людмилов Чочев; born 18 February 1993) is a Bulgarian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for the First League side CSKA 1948 and the

Bulgarian national team The Bulgaria national football team ( bg, Български национален отбор по футбол, Bǎlgarski natsionalen otbor po futbol) represents Bulgaria in men's international football and is administered by the Bulgarian Foo ...

Career

Early career

Born in

Pleven Pleven ( bg, Плèвен ) is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality. It is the biggest ...

, Chochev began his career with local club

Spartak Pleven OFK Spartak ( bg, ОФК Спартак) is a Bulgarian municipal association football club from the city of Pleven founded on 10 September 1919. It currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. The team's grea ...

, before moving to Chavdar Etropole in 2008.

CSKA Sofia

On 16 January 2013, Chochev joined

A Group The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

club

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

. He made his debut in a 2–0 home win against

Chernomorets Burgas PSFC Chernomorets Burgas ( bg, ПСФК Черноморец Бургас) or simply Chernomorets ( bg, Черноморец) was a Bulgarian football club from the city of Burgas. The club never won any major competition, its most notable achie ...

on 10 March 2013. Chochev swiftly became a regular starter. During 2013–14 season he established himself as a key member of the team. On 12 February 2014, it was officially announced that Chochev had signed a new three-year contract and doubled his previous salary.

Palermo

On 11 July 2014, Chochev moved to

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

club

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

, signing a three-year contract.

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

and

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony, located on the river Aller. It lies about east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the location of Volkswagen AG's hea ...

were also keen on signing him but were not able to come to an agreement in time. Chochev scored his first goal for Palermo on 8 August, netting the tenth in a 12–0 pre-season friendly win over Calciochiese. He made his

debut on 5 October against

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

, coming on for the last 18 minutes in place of

Franco Vázquez Franco Damián Vázquez (; born 22 February 1989) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Serie B club Parma and the Argentina national team. Beginning his career with Argentine club Belgrano in 2007, V� ...

as Palermo lost 1–0 at

Stadio Carlo Castellani The Stadio comunale Carlo Castellani is a multi-purpose stadium in Empoli, Italy. It is currently used mostly for football matches and the home of Empoli F.C. The stadium holds 16,284. Built in 1923, the Stadio Carlo Castellani is currently the ...

. On 19 October, Chochev started for first time, playing 66 minutes in a 2–1 home win over

Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and ''comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137. History Cesena was o ...

. He scored his first

goal on 12 April 2015, in a 3–1 away win over

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

Stadio Friuli The Stadio Friuli (known for sponsorship reasons as Dacia Arena) is an all-seater football stadium in Udine, Italy, and the home of Serie A club Udinese. The stadium was built in 1976 and has a capacity of 25,144. It is sponsored by Romanian ca ...

. A week later on 19 April 2015, he scored another two goals against

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

in a 2–1 home victory. His outstanding performances, both against

and

, saw him being named

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

twice. On 22 June 2015, Chochev signed a new five-year contract. On 25 September 2017, he provided two assists in a 2–1 home win over

Pro Vercelli Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, is an Italian football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. The club is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Italy, with seven natio ...

. He scored his first league goal of the season and received the man of the match award in a 2–2 away draw against

Pescara Pescara (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Pescàrë; nap, label= Pescarese, Piscàrë) is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 119,217 (2018) residents (and approxim ...

on 3 November. He scored a volley from outside the box on 19 May 2018, in the last match of the regular season against

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919, commonly referred to as Salernitana, is an Italian football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recentl ...

, in a 0-2 away win.

Pescara

In June 2019 Chochev joined

, but never played because of his long recovery process from an injury he sustained in March 2019.

CSKA 1948

In the summer of 2020, Chochev returned to Bulgaria to sign with the newly promoted to First League team CSKA 1948. He returned in play on 18 October 2020, more than an year and a half after his injury.

International career

Chochev made his debut with the Under 21 national team during the Under-21 European Championship qualifying category in 2013. He was called up to the senior national team for a friendly against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

on 23 May 2014. He made his debut with the national team on 8 June 2015 in a 4–0 friendly loss against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. He made his first start playing the full 90 minutes on 3 September 2015 as Bulgaria lost 0–1 to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

. Chochev scored his first goal with the national team on June 3, 2016 during the 2016 Kirin Cup in a 2–7 defeat to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. On 31 August 2017, Chochev scored the winning goal for the 3–2 win over

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

.Хубчев преобрази България, натрихме ноcа на шведите
/ref> On 22 March 2019, Chochev received a heavy injury in a qualification match against

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

Honours

Best midfielder in Bulgarian football for 2021

Career statistics

Club

International

:''As of match played 5 September 2021. Bulgaria score listed first, score column indicates score after each Chochev goal.''

References

External links

*
Player Profile
at UEFA {{DEFAULTSORT:Chochev, Ivaylo 1993 births Living people Bulgarian footballers Bulgaria under-21 international footballers Bulgaria international footballers Bulgarian expatriate footballers FC Chavdar Etropole players PFC CSKA Sofia players Palermo F.C. players Delfino Pescara 1936 players FC CSKA 1948 Sofia players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Serie A players Serie B players Association football midfielders Expatriate footballers in Italy Sportspeople from Pleven